Tag Archives: games

Never A Dull Moment Around Here

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Never A Dull Moment Around Here

Last night I did something I hadn’t done in over 20 years. I played board games with kids in my Bible Study group. I say “kids” because they’re all in their 20s except for one other and myself. The one other is my friend Clairesse who is 31. We first met a few years ago when we were renting rooms in a house in Dryden. We went to church together, went out to eat together and sought out garage sales and estate sales. Clairesse attended a youth group at a local church and then a few of them broke off to start a smaller Bible Study group. When I was here last summer, she told the others about her friend Karen. They encouraged her to bring me to group. So I came. They welcomed me warmly and I was hooked. It’s exciting to see kids that age in a Bible Study……and also very accepting of a woman in her 70s. Some of us even kept in touch while I was away in Mexico over the winter.

Now back to the board games. Last night the group met at Treasure Trove. This is a store with hundreds of different board games. You can buy them, or you can come and play them. And play them we did. We played King of Tokyo and Escalating Quickly and more than 2 hours flew by and the store was closing. I have to tell you, this group keeps me young. I can’t wait to see what we will do the next time we get together. However I did draw the line when we met at Walla Walla Point Park. While they chased around a frisbee, I was quite content to take videos of them.

Wednesday was a Cashmere day. I volunteered at a church, toured the new library and then took in the music and food trucks at the farmers market. And yes, I visited my tree.

I was out for coffee this morning at Pybus in Wenatchee. My friend had an interesting story to tell. She was in a research group years ago for GLP-1 injections. At the time she was thrilled with her weight loss. But now she regrets ever doing it. In order to maintain that weight loss, you can’t discontinue using the drug. The weight just comes right back and then some. And then there are all the side effects and the potential damage to every vital organ in your body. Despite all the warnings, people are only too eager to lose weight this way. The drug companies and the medical system are the real winners here, not the patients.

On a happier note, I went to my book club meeting yesterday. We meet at a bookstore in Wenatchee which has a meeting space for us where we can enjoy our pot luck lunch as well as discuss books. The last book we read was a rather dry historical fiction, but the next book appears to be more interesting.

Sunday night is another Gladsong concert. I can’t believe a month has gone by since the last one.

July is off to a good start. Hope yours is too.

Whirlwind Weekend

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Whirlwind Weekend

I just returned from a fabulous weekend in Culiacan with my family. And I’ll add that it’s the highlight of my winter in Mexico this year.

Culiacan. This is the city where my Mexican adventure began back in 2010. When I first arrived, my Spanish vocabulary was extremely very limited to Cerveza fria por favor. Juan wanted to improve his English and I desperately needed to learn some Spanish. We both taught at Senda and would meet in the library where Juan patiently helped me read children’s books.

At the time he and his wife Lucila had one child. Juan Carlos had just turned one. The family has grown and they now have four boys. And I have four nietos.

On Saturday night my granddaughter Madeline called me from Kelowna. This was a really special video call because she got to meet my Mexican family. She was a tad overwhelmed as the boys were eager to talk in English to her and one even showed her a picture he had colored. Madeline commented that it was a little crowded with everyone in the room. She is an only child so it is very different.

The boys were all excited to see her and commented on her blond hair. I have always talked about Madeline to them and it was nice that they all had a chance to meet. We’ll have to do it again the next time I go to Culiacan.

One of our favorite pastimes is playing board games. This weekend we played Uno and Scrabble. We play in Spanish and English.

The boys are learning English at school. Juan Carlos received a certificate from Cambridge recently. I helped Jose Agustin with his homework over the weekend, another of my favorite things to do when I visit.

Although I’m not Catholic, I always go to mass with my family. Sunday evening we were at La Lomita. My ten year old grandson was sitting beside me with his arm around me and his head resting on my shoulder. He looked up at me and said “Grandma I love you” and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Life just doesn’t get any better than that.